This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of FrogTape®. All opinions are 100% mine.
Need a quick, easy, and inexpensive way to update a wall in your home and add character to a room? Try creating a board and batten wall. Board and batten wainscoting is a simple way to add more dimension and depth to any room in your home and is a quick fix that won’t break the bank.
We painted our living room wall last year and the wall was just a bit blah, even with our thick baseboard. We ended up adding a chair rail and painting the rail and the wall underneath it white, but it still needed more.
Enter board and batten! Board and batten is paneling that has wide boards and narrow strips of wood, called battens. We wanted to go the easy way on our board and batten interior wall project, so we didn’t use the large wood boards on the wall.
We just painted the wall underneath and between the wood strips for a simpler and quicker board and batten wall that was done in a day from start to finish!
Like I mentioned, we already had existing white baseboard and a chair rail with the inside painted white, so we had a bit of a head start. We just kept those on the wall and started from there.
Measuring and buying the wood
Measure your wall(s) and figure out how much wood you will need and what you want your finished board and batten wall to look like. You can also sketch out a picture with all the measurements to take to the store if that helps you.
At the hardware store we bought select pine strips that were .75″ x 2.5″ for the vertical wood strips that would be going in between our existing baseboard and chair rail. There really are no rules to this, so choose the size of wood that works best for your home and fits the style and look that you’re going for.
It’s a little bit more expensive to use the select grade of wood, but I think it was worth it for this project, especially since it was just for one wall.
Cutting the wood strips
I measured how long each piece needed to be to fit in between our existing molding, then my husband used his saw to cut each piece the right size.
I measured across the entire wall, then divided by how many vertical pieces of wood I was going to use so that everything was spaced out perfectly. I placed the wood strips where they belonged on the wall.
Adding the wood strips to the wall
Since our home is older and has plaster walls that can tend to crumble easily, we used drywall screws instead of finishing nails. We also chose to countersink the holes in the wood.
We used a drill to attach each board with the screws, then used wood putty and a scraper to fill in each hole and smooth out all the lines between the wood to make a clean finish.
Prepping the wall for paint
Once everything was on the wall, it was time for my favorite part- painting! I wanted a bright white on our board and batten wall to create a contrast from the darker wall above. This white was brighter than the creamier color that we had before and we needed to paint the entire bottom half of the wall.
To make our job easier, I used FrogTape® to create sharp paint lines and keep my paint job looking crisp and clean.
FrogTape painter’s tape is perfect for painting walls, as well as for baseboard and trim. It’s treated with patented PaintBlock® Technology, which reacts with the water in latex paint to instantly gel and create a barrier to seal the tape and prevent tape bleed. It’s a great way to get those nice, crisp paint lines we love so much!
I applied FrogTape above the entire chair rail on the wall, as well as along the entire baseboard on our wood floors.
Painting the board and batten
My husband used a small roller to roll in between the wood strips and along the top of them, while I used a smaller brush to paint along the inside edges of each wood batten and along the top and bottom of our board and batten wall. We painted on two coats of our bright white paint.
We removed the FrogTape while the paint was still wet, and voila! Crisp, sharp paint lines that made our board and batten wainscoting look even better and more professional!
Creating a photo shelf
I’m SO happy with our new and improved wall. It even motivated us to create a hanging photo shelf too!
We have a large collection of frames and we had two pretty corbels that we weren’t using yet. We painted a long piece of wood white, then screwed it into our two corbels that we hung on the wall for a simple yet stunning white picture shelf.
I got some of my favorite family photos printed, then hung some of the photos and placed some on the shelf.
I wanted to create some space underneath so that my picture shelf could also hold small decorations for each season. Since it’s summer, I added some sand from some of our favorite beach vacations, some real coral, a shell, and a glass float.
I’m so excited to switch out these decorations each season. I love going overboard for each holiday, so I’m thrilled to have one more space to add more decorations.
I hope you enjoyed our diy board and batten wall tutorial. Really, creating a board and batten wall is quite simple and inexpensive, yet brings such great results! It’s a wonderful way to add more character and life to a living room, bedroom, hallway, or bathroom.
If you have an ugly outdated fireplace, be sure to check out our stunning fireplace remodel. We transformed our hideous brick fireplace into a beautiful and cozy fireplace that we love so much!
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